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A new malware family named Webrat has been distributed through GitHub repositories, masquerading as proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits for high-profile vulnerabilities. The campaign, uncovered in late 2025, initially targeted gamers and users seeking cheats or cracked software, but later expanded to include inexperienced information security professionals and students. Attackers crafted repositories with detailed, AI-generated descriptions of vulnerabilities, including guides and mitigation steps, to build credibility and lure victims into downloading malicious files.
The malware is delivered as a password-protected archive containing an executable that escalates privileges, disables Windows Defender, and downloads the Webrat payload from a hardcoded URL. Once installed, Webrat can steal credentials from Telegram, Discord, Steam, and cryptocurrency wallets, log keystrokes, record screens, access webcams and microphones, and provide remote access to attackers. The campaign leverages vulnerabilities with high CVSSv3 scores, such as those in Internet Explorer, WordPress plugins, Windows services, and Tenda routers, to attract victims searching for exploit code.
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On December 23, 2025, public reports detailed that WebRAT was being spread through fake GitHub exploit repositories instead of only through gaming and piracy-themed lures. The disclosure emphasized that the malware's functionality was largely unchanged, but the social-engineering tactic had evolved to target the cybersecurity community.
By the time public reporting appeared, the fake GitHub repositories used in the campaign had been taken down. Researchers warned that the threat remained because attackers could quickly create replacement repositories and continue using the same lure.
Researchers identified 15 GitHub repositories posing as exploit code for recently disclosed vulnerabilities, including examples tied to multiple 2025 CVEs. The repositories were part of the same social-engineering operation distributing WebRAT rather than legitimate proof-of-concept code.
Kaspersky researchers discovered the GitHub-based WebRAT campaign about a month after it began, indicating detection around October 2025. Their analysis found repositories using AI-generated-looking writeups, password-protected ZIP archives, and loaders that disabled Defender, escalated privileges, and fetched WebRAT from hardcoded infrastructure.
By at least September 2025, WebRAT operators expanded distribution to GitHub repositories masquerading as proof-of-concept exploits for high-profile CVEs. The campaign targeted inexperienced security researchers, students, and aspiring hackers likely to run untrusted exploit code on their own Windows systems.
WebRAT was seen in the wild by January 2025, distributed through game cheats, pirated software, patches, and similar lures rather than fake exploit repositories. Reports describe it as an established backdoor and infostealer before the later GitHub-focused campaign.
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Researchers reported multiple **BitRAT** distribution campaigns that used highly tailored social-engineering lures to infect Windows users with the commodity remote access trojan. In one campaign, attackers abused a Colombian cooperative bank’s compromised infrastructure and reused stolen customer records in malicious Excel files, indicating a real breach involving roughly **418,777** rows of sensitive data. Qualys said the operators likely exploited **SQL injection** with `sqlmap`, then used obfuscated macros, `certutil`, and `rundll32` to stage and launch BitRAT from payloads hosted on a throwaway GitHub repository. Separate reporting showed BitRAT also spread through fake **Windows 10 activators** shared on South Korean webhards, Discord, and social media, where a bogus activation tool downloaded the malware and attempted to weaken Windows Defender protections. Fortinet documented another BitRAT campaign that targeted **NFT enthusiasts**, using Hebrew-language Excel lures and Discord-hosted payloads to deliver the malware through batch scripts, PowerShell, and DLL injection into a copied `MSBuild.exe` process. Across the campaigns, BitRAT was described as a low-cost malware-as-a-service tool sold on underground forums since 2021, with capabilities including credential theft, keylogging, webcam and microphone access, hidden remote desktop (**HVNC**), file exfiltration, cryptocurrency mining, DDoS activity, and persistence via startup-folder placement or process injection. The reporting highlights how BitRAT operators increasingly combine stolen data, topical themes, and pirated software bait with legitimate services such as GitHub and Discord to improve infection success.
Aug 15, 2026
A sophisticated malware campaign has been uncovered in which threat actors use GitHub to distribute a new Remote Access Trojan (RAT) called PyStoreRAT. The attackers reactivated dormant GitHub accounts or created new ones to publish repositories masquerading as legitimate OSINT tools, DeFi bots, and AI chat wrappers. These repositories, often promoted on social media and artificially boosted in popularity, were designed to appeal to IT administrators, cybersecurity professionals, and open-source intelligence researchers. Once the repositories gained trust and visibility, the attackers introduced malicious code through subtle 'maintenance' updates, enabling the silent deployment of PyStoreRAT. PyStoreRAT is a modular, multi-stage malware capable of executing a variety of payloads, including EXE, DLL, PowerShell, MSI, Python, JavaScript, and HTA modules. It profiles victim systems and can deploy additional threats such as the Rhadamanthys information stealer and Python Loader. Many of the fake tools hosted on GitHub were non-functional or provided only minimal placeholder features, serving primarily as a delivery mechanism for the malware. The campaign demonstrates a calculated abuse of GitHub's trust model and highlights the risks of downloading and executing code from seemingly reputable open-source repositories.
Jun 29, 2026
Multiple research reports detailed **Windows-focused malware delivery chains** that rely on social engineering and abuse of legitimate services to blend into normal enterprise traffic. FortiGuard Labs described a **multi-stage campaign targeting users in Russia** that starts with business-themed decoy documents and scripts, then escalates to security-control bypass and surveillance before deploying **Amnesia RAT** and ultimately **ransomware** with widespread file encryption. A notable technique in that intrusion is the abuse of **Defendnot** (a Windows Security Center trust-model research tool) to **disable Microsoft Defender**, while payloads are hosted modularly across public cloud services (e.g., **GitHub** for scripts and **Dropbox** for binaries) to improve resilience and complicate takedowns. Separately, ReliaQuest reported attackers using **LinkedIn private messages** to build trust with targets and deliver a **WinRAR SFX** that triggers **DLL sideloading** via a legitimate PDF reader, then establishes persistence (Registry `Run` key) and executes **Base64-encoded shellcode in-memory** to load a RAT-like payload. Trend Micro and Koi Security documented **Evelyn Stealer**, which weaponizes **malicious VS Code extensions** to drop a downloader DLL (e.g., `Lightshot.dll`), run hidden PowerShell to fetch `runtime.exe`, and inject the stealer into `grpconv.exe`, exfiltrating data (credentials, cookies, wallets, screenshots, Wi‑Fi credentials) to `server09.mentality[.]cloud` over FTP. AhnLab ASEC also reported **proxyjacking** activity in South Korea attributed to **Larva‑25012**, distributing **proxyware disguised as a Notepad++ installer** and evolving evasion (e.g., injecting into Windows Explorer and using Python-based loaders) to monetize victims’ bandwidth via unauthorized proxyware installation.
Jun 29, 2026